Updates

Water Reporter is now available on Androids and Google Smartphones! Click here to download the award-winning Water Reporter App to report pollution on the go! Have an iPhone? Download it from the App Store here!

Water Reporter gives citizens everywhere a streamlined way to keep track of their local waterways and spread the word when a pollution threat turns up. Use your smartphone or tablet to...

Potomac Riverkeeper Responds to EPA Regulations for the Disposal of Coal Ash

Rule ignores plain facts and misses opportunity to put real protections in place for waters and communities.

Washington DC -- December 19, 2014 – To comply with a court-ordered deadline, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today has issued its first-ever national rule on the disposal of coal ash. This toxic byproduct...

If you have been following the news headlines, then you have probably noticed that climate and energy policy along with other environmental issues are front and center among political tensions.

While our donor base is equally represented by both major political parties (a fact that makes us proud!), we did get nervous when we learned that the same political party responsible for over 300 anti-environmental pieces of legislation just gained control of the second chamber of Congress. Over the past several years, most “anti-clean water”...

In our Summer 2014 edition of River Watch, we wrote about the threats posed by stormwater in the Potomac Watershed and our efforts to strengthen stormwater general permits throughout the region. In the Upper Potomac, the pollution caused by industrial stormwater is a particularly major concern. Many believe that because the Upper Potomac watershed is very rural, stormwater pollution is less of a concern than in areas of the watershed with more urban development. This is simply not the case.

In January, the effects of the November 4 election will begin to be felt in our region. While some of the Potomac watershed states remain relatively unaffected, river advocates should brace themselves for attacks on protections for clean water coming out of Annapolis and Capitol Hill.

In his campaign, Maryland governor elect Larry Hogan pushed the idea that Maryland residents are being overtaxed. His poster child for absurd taxes? The so-called “rain tax,” which Hogan promised he would repeal if he won. (O’Malley was so tax-happy,...

Millions of livestock animals are raised in the Shenandoah Valley, a region that by most standards is the breadbasket of Virginia. Agriculture has intensified over the past 40 years, as landowners work to produce more with their limited acreage and to out-strip the drop in commodity prices. The result? The confinement of animals in what are known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). CAFOs allow farmers to house, feed, and care for large numbers of animals as economically as possible in order to meet increasing demand.

Local Conservation Groups Support U.S. Forest Service Decision to Keep GW National Forest Lands Off Limits to Gas Drilling and Fracking

Charlottesville, VA – Local conservation and community groups expressed support for today’s decision from the U.S. Forest Service to make the George Washington National Forest (GW) unavailable for oil and gas drilling, except for a small portion of the forest already under gas lease or subject to private mineral rights.

Following two high-profile coal ash pond spills, one in Tennessee in 2008 and recently on the Dan River of North Carolina, water advocates are alarmed at the imminent harm these coal ash disposal facilities pose to our rivers and streams.

Coal ash ponds are unlined or clay-lined man-made ponds used to store ashes from burning coal in coal-fired power plants. These open ponds collect rainwater, creating a toxic sludge of water, coal ash, and heavy metals such as arsenic, barium...

Trying to understand this issue? Picture this: it’s finally the weekend, the weather is perfect, and you head down to the beach to kick back and relax for the day. Just when you thought you were finally catching a break you show up at the beach to see those long piles of seaweed (marine algae) piled up in multiple rows at the high tide line...

Who wants to share their swimming or fishing hole with a herd of cows?

In our last newsletter, we introduced you to our “Get The Cattle Out Campaign,” in which Shenandoah Riverkeeper identified and documented every single place that cattle have access to and wallow in the North Fork, South Fork and Main Stem Shenandoah. Our first step in that campaign was to send letters to owners of each of the 73 herds we found, or the land that they graze on, notifying them of the...